Blast kills 14 in Morocco

MARRAKECH, Morocco - A massive terrorist bomb tore through a tourist cafe in the bustling heart of Marrakech's old quarter, killing at least 11 foreigners and three Moroccans.

MARRAKECH, Morocco - A massive terrorist bomb tore through a tourist cafe in the bustling heart of Marrakech's old quarter, killing at least 11 foreigners and three Moroccans.

It was the country's deadliest attack in eight years.

At least 23 people were wounded in yesterday's blast, which happened a few minutes before noon in Djemma el-Fna square, one of the top attractions in a country that depends heavily on tourism, Moroccan Interior Minister Taib Chergaoui said.

Government spokesman Khalid Naciri said it was too soon to lay blame for what he called a terrorist attack, but he noted that Morocco regularly dismantles cells linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and says it has disrupted several plots.

At least eight French citizens were being treated at Marrakech's main Tofail Hospital, along with one Canadian, a British citizen and three Moroccans, emergency-room chief Hicham Nejmi said. Others were being treated at a military hospital and a handful in private clinics.

"There was a huge bang, and lots of smoke went up. There was debris raining down from the sky," said honeymooner Andy Birnie, who lives in north London.

At least two French nationals were among the casualties, although it was unclear whether they were dead or wounded, judicial officials in the French capital said. President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that the victims included French citizens.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said the British ambassador was traveling to Marrakech, although he gave no immediate confirmation of British casualties.

This former French colony has enjoyed relative stability and political plurality compared with some of its neighbors, but King Mohamed VI holds the final say in all policy, and the country's largest Islamist movement is banned from politics.

The king has pledged constitutional reforms in response to several largely peaceful protests over the past two months that were inspired by popular uprisings that pushed out autocrats in nearby Tunisia and Egypt.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "the United States condemns in the strongest terms today's terrorist attack that killed and injured innocent people at a cafe in Marrakech, Morocco."

Al-Qaida's affiliate in North Africa stages regular attacks and kidnappings in neighboring Algeria. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is holding four Frenchmen hostage after kidnapping them in Niger last year, and recently released new images and audio recordings of their voices.

Morocco, however, has been mostly peaceful since it was hit by five simultaneous terrorist bombings in Casablanca in 2003 that killed 33 people and a dozen bombers linked to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a local militant group that has also been implicated in the deadly transit attacks in Madrid in March 2004.

In April 2007, two suicide bombers died in attacks by the U.S. consulate in Casablanca, the economic capital.